VA requests $16.6B for backlog of toxin exposure claims.

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Hearing Highlights Need for Increased Funding for Veterans

At the recent Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requested more funding to maintain and increase staff to process payment claims for veterans who have suffered injury or illness from exposure to toxins during their time in service. This is in accordance with the “Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act” (PACT Act), which President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022. Since then, more than 500,000 claims have been filed and more than $1 billion in benefits paid.

Testimonies and Unexpected Drama

Secretary of the VA Denis McDonough appeared in front of the committee to present budget and appropriations requests and to field and answer questions from senators. Also testifying at the hearing were Morgan Brown, national legislative director of Paralyzed Veterans of America; Shane Liermann, deputy national legislative director of Disabled American Veterans; and Patrick Murray, director of the National Legislative Service for Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) added a dose of unexpected drama to the event. After staying on topic about veterans’ affairs, she went off topic in a big way, referencing the 300-page Durham Report released earlier in the week that documented critical errors in the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion by the 2016 Trump presidential campaign with Russian operatives.

Funding Requests and Consequences

VA requested $325.1 billion in funding for 2024, an increase of $16.6 billion or 5.4 percent over the enacted amount for 2023. VA also asked the committee for a mandatory advance appropriation of $193 billion for the Veterans benefits programs, which include readjustment benefits, compensation and pensions, and veterans’ insurance and indemnities.

Donohue and the committee discussed how the recent debt-limit bill that the GOP passed in the House, which would hold spending at 2022 levels and has little chance of advancing in the Senate, would affect VA operations. VA has said that a consequence of the bill, if passed, would be a 22 percent cut in spending for veterans’ services. The GOP has countered by saying it is not touching veterans’ spending in its austerity and belt-tightening plan.

The Impact of Cuts on Veterans

Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) asked McDonough for his thoughts on the House’s debt-limit bill. “If that 22 percent cut is applied to VA healthcare, that would mean 30 million fewer outpatient visits of the type I just talked about that we had last year,” McDonough said. “Those are outpatient visits in the direct care system or community care system.”

McDonough said that the cuts would hurt the ability of the VA to handle benefit and disability claims. “Alternatively, if you look at it from the benefits administration, again, I talked about the fact that claims filed are 30 percent above where they were a year ago,” McDonough said. “We are fulfilling 15 percent more claims year on year than we did a year ago, and we’re able to do that because some efficiency we’ve found, but also because of hiring we carried out. If you apply the 22 percent reduction, add VBA [Veterans Benefits Administration], that would mean 6,000 fewer staff there. We have 28,000 staff there for the first time. We’ve talked to many of the members of this committee through how our staffing model works, where we are in that staffing model. But if there are 6,000 fewer personnel to process claims, that’ll be an extension of a timeline that’s already too long for vets; more delays.”

Support for Veterans and Fiscal Accountability

In his opening remarks, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) asserted his support and the support of all members of Congress for veterans. Meanwhile, he also echoed the sentiment of his fellow party members in arguing for more fiscal accountability and restraint in other areas of spending.

“I believe this and every VA budget request could be judged through a single lens, and that is, ‘What will it deliver for veterans?’” Moran said. “This year’s budget request is, once again, the largest yet for the VA, totaling $325.1 billion. That’s a big number, and it should lead to big improvements for veterans. But if bigger numbers were all that is needed to deliver, we’d have better results. And so, it’s what we can deliver with bigger numbers and better results, we still wouldn’t have higher veteran suicide rates, hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting on claim backlog for their earned benefits, a troubled new electronic health record, a 12 months trend of meaningful decline in access to care.”

Conclusion

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing highlighted the need for increased funding for veterans and the potential consequences of cuts to VA spending. It also showcased the support for veterans from both sides of the aisle and the importance of fiscal accountability in government spending.